KegConnection Kit - 5 Foot Lines

I ordered a kegerator conversion kit from Keg Connection which only comes with 5 foot lines. Everyone recommends 10 foot lines, but by using the beer line calculator spreadsheet, and calculating my distances, and everything else, it seems as if my 5 foot lines would be more than adequate.

Is there something I am missing?

What does height from keg center to tap mean?

These are my measurements:
Temperature: 34-38 hopefully.
Beer line: 3/16"
Shank length: 5"
Shank Bore: 3/16"
Beer out connection to shank: ~22"
Height from keg center to tap:~20" (If it means the center of the top of the keg)

I don't have CO2 or my temp controller yet, so I can't play with it until I get these things.

You'll be fine with 5' lines. I use 5' lines and have never had a foaming issue.

When I first started kegging a lot of the beers I served did well under more pressure and higher carbing. In this case 5' seemed inadequate. Now I have the opposite situation. Almost every beer I serve does better under low carb i.e. English bitters, and I am finding that I get a very slow pour with 5' of line.

So short answer: Fizzy yellow American style beers 8-10' of line, low carbed UK style Bitters 5' of line is fine.

Whew, I had these same concerns when I ordered my kit from them (hopefully will come Tuesday!) And where is this beer line spreadsheet? The one I found is a dead link

I attached the calculator because I couldn't find the link to it again!

View attachment Beer Line Length and Pressure Calculator.zip

Sweet Jesterday, thank you!

I am pretty sweet!

Yeah...everything I calculated said 5 would be fine. I still ended up going to 10 footers....(I carb to around 2. something volumes at 10-12 psi, 38 degs F)

I also got 5 ft lines from them and while they are certainly serviceable, I would have much rather gone w/ 8-10 ft and am even considering pulling the shorter ones out. There's just something about keeping the serving pressure significantly lower than carbing pressure that bothers me. Kind of pisses me off that they were so adamant about going w/ the shorter lines and then never responded to an e-mail expressing this concern.

CharlosCarlies said:

I also got 5 ft lines from them and while they are certainly serviceable, I would have much rather gone w/ 8-10 ft and am even considering pulling the shorter ones out. There's just something about keeping the serving pressure significantly lower than carbing pressure that bothers me. Kind of pisses me off that they were so adamant about going w/ the shorter lines and then never responded to an e-mail expressing this concern.

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Swap em out. Best 13 bucks I spent was going to 10 foot lines....foam free pours and can keep beer at carbing pressure, (your beer will lose carbonation if you hold it at a pressure lower than what you carbonated it at).

shortyjacobs said:

Swap em out. Best 13 bucks I spent was going to 10 foot lines....foam free pours and can keep beer at carbing pressure, (your beer will lose carbonation if you hold it at a pressure lower than what you carbonated it at).

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Yeah it would be really nice to have the option of letting it carb in the kegerator.

I would have switched them out already but 12 lines can be a ***** to swap out.

It's very temperature dependent. If you go colder, you can reduce the pressure and use shorter lines given a fixed carbonation level. I found mid 30's F too cold and prefer 42F so that I don't have to let the beer warm in the glass. This bumped my pressures up and required longer serving lines. YMMV.

Yeah, my temps are hovering around 36 degrees at 10 psi, seems to be perfect, so far.

CharlosCarlies said:

Yeah it would be really nice to have the option of letting it carb in the kegerator.

I would have switched them out already but 12 lines can be a ***** to swap out.

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Ouch! 12 lines! What an embarrassment of riches!

CharlosCarlies said:

Kind of pisses me off that they were so adamant about going w/ the shorter lines and then never responded to an e-mail expressing this concern.

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probably because they have a giant bin of pre-cut 5' lines. they never responded to my email about a kit either

motobrewer said:

probably because they have a giant bin of pre-cut 5' lines. they never responded to my email about a kit either

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Pretty frustrating after dropping close to a grand w/ them.

My brother actually lives 10-15 minutes from them, so maybe I'll just stop by next time I visit him.

I ordered a 2 spout kit from them about a month ago. I added an extra 6' of line from them and requested that instead of getting 2 5' lines, that I get 2 8' lines with the kit. I had no problems, and received exactly what I requested.

The kit I ordered from them came with 5' lines as well. However, the tower that I bought from a different vendor also came with 5' lines. I simply cut off the connector from each end (the keg beer line and the tower beer line) and added a coupler fitting to join them together. Presto.... I now have 10' lines that only cost me $2 each for the coupler and zero foaming issues!

i called them about 30 minutes ago about building and ordering a custom kit.

he answered the phone and asked if he could call me back tomorrow, lol. he said he was extremely busy with the weekend orders and was struggling to catch up. i don't really mind that at all, especially since i didn't have EXACTLY what i wanted picked out.

but absolutely no response to the email i sent about 2 weeks ago kind of irked me. but, email systems are tricky.

he said he was extremely busy with the weekend orders and was struggling to catch up.

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FWIW I think this is probably true. I dropped by and picked up my order and they looked absolutely swamped (this was a couple months ago though). I think they're just a bunch of recent college graduates that put a business together and have been struggling to keep up w/ demand.

oh yeah, like I said, I had no problem with it. glad they're doing well. i'm just excited to build/order my kegging equipment

Can you just do a 10' beer line and a 5' gas line or do you want to do 10' for both of them? I am going out to purchase my lines on Wednesday, keezer is almost complete!

You can always try these. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/

One or two should do the trick.

I found one is just right on a Bitters and two works well on a Fat tire running 10 psi on 5' lines and 38* for me. YMMV

waldoar15 said:

You can always try these. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/

One or two should do the trick.

I found one is just right on a Bitters and two works well on a Fat tire running 10 psi on 5' lines and 38* for me. YMMV

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These are awesome. I have had them for awhile. I just always forgot to use them. I always tend to accidently overcarb my kegs. I finally remembered to put 2 in. Its amazing. I am going to turn of the C02 a bit.

aryiman said:

Can you just do a 10' beer line and a 5' gas line or do you want to do 10' for both of them? I am going out to purchase my lines on Wednesday, keezer is almost complete!

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Your gas lines don't have to be long. Whatever it takes to reach your keg is all you need.